All Blog Posts
Grave Puzzles
August 21, 2012
By Dr. James M. Boles, Contributor The sheriff waved to me as I made a sharp right turn into the field, the right of way was overgrown and hard to follow. The car rolled past the old silo and the stone barn foundation which was covered with vines and scrub brush. In this jungle, Dave and his crew from People Inc. did a great job cleaning up the old Niagara County Poorhouse cemetery (1829-1915) which opens up into a small clearing. The accounts list up to 1400 people buried here but I was here …
Taking a Walk with ReWalk
August 16, 2012
By Sarah Drexelius, Contributor After taking a tour at the Museum of disABILITY History, the picture showing the “Re-Walk,” a robotic exoskeleton immediately captured my attention. Although there were other incredible artifacts and displays about how far technology and society has come in relation to disabilities, this sparked my interest the most. My aunt was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) at the age of 19 and she is now in her 40s. As the disease progresses, walking is more challeng…
Push Girls – Overcoming Adversity and Inspiring Others
August 2, 2012
By Brie Kishel, Contributor An inspirational series has premiered this summer on the Sundance channel. It portrays the story of five young women, each of whose lives has been forever changed in different ways. But the one thing that they all have in common is that they have learned to use a wheelchair to get themselves around. Two of the women, Tiphany “The Blonde Bombshell” and Chelsie “The Dancer,” were involved in separate drunk driving incidents where they became the victims of another he…
“Breaking Barriers for Disability: Breaking Bad’s RJ Mitte”
July 25, 2012
By Osiris Gomez, Contributor I speak for many in my generation when I say there is significant buzz around UB’s campus surrounding America’s edgiest TV series Breaking Bad. It’s not your American Idol, your Seinfeld, and your Grey’s Anatomy. It defies everything. That might be why the major syndicates, ABC, NBC, or FOX wanted nothing to do with it. But people love this show. Despite airing on AMC, it has attracted a huge following from fans and critics alike. Since its creation by Vince Gillig…
The World as it Could Be – Part Two
July 18, 2012
By Brie Kishel, Contributor School districts across New York State are scrambling to implement anti-bullying programs in order to conform to the “Dignity for All Students Act” (DASA). The legislation requires school districts to protect their students by prohibiting the harassment and discrimination of any student, reporting all bullying incidents that occur and enforcing swift and severe consequences for bullying behavior. As a result of this legislation, both students and staff are being tau…
The Niagara County Almshouse Cemetery
June 22, 2012
By David Mack-Hardiman, Contributor Surrounded by a thorny thicket of nearly impenetrable foliage, the Niagara County Almshouse Cemetery sits on a remote hill in Lockport, NY. Here lie the remains of approximately 1,400 people who lived and died at the almshouse from 1830 until 1916. As one walks up the path to approach the cemetery, songbirds chatter in the treetops. Densely overgrown bristly shrubs sit to the left of the path while an open grassy field is on the right. The taller treed area …
Teaching American History through Cemeteries
June 14, 2012
By Reid Dunlavey, Contributor On June 4, 2012, I had the opportunity to give a presentation to 25 elementary teachers at Forest Lawn Cemetery. There were five presenters and we all had to use the cemetery as a teaching tool in our presentations. This was not an easy task. My first thought was how or even why would an elementary teacher use death and a cemetery to teach history? After thinking about whom of significance was buried there and if any of those people had any impact on children and …
The World as it Could Be – Part One
May 10, 2012
By Brie Kishel, Contributor It is a topic that is hard to ignore. Not only because it has been prominent on television and in the newspaper, but because of the vast influence of social networking sites within the past decade. Bullying has escalated from being a social injustice that took place mainly on the playground or in graffiti written on the bathroom stall to cyber bullying, a new form of attack which provides an arena for a bully to publicly humiliate their victim to thousands of bystan…